Catholic Social Teaching

Catholic Social Teaching Documents

Because these Catholic social teaching documents are part of an evolving body of teaching, it is important to understand them in context. We offer brief introductions by Sandie Cornish to all the major international social encyclicals as well as links to the full text. We also provide commentaries and resource materials on the encyclicals.

Find Local Teachings

Local Bishops teach on social justice issues as well as the Pope. We invite you to discover the social teachings of Catholic Bishops from Asia and the Pacific. To help you find what you are looking for, there are sub-categories for different regions and specific countries. There is also a subcategory for teaching from the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences, known as the FABC.

Sources, Themes & Principles

Read commentary on the sources, themes and principles of Catholic Social Teaching by Sandie Cornish.

Catholic Social Teaching Quotes

You can find inspirational quotes from the international and Asia Pacific teaching documentshere. This is a great way to introduce key ideas from the teachings and stimulate reflection.

A humanitarian crisis is unfolding on Manus Island following the closure of the Australian funded immigration detention centre on 31 October 2017. Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen is the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference spokesperson on asylum seekers and refugees. He made the following statement on 3 November. Bishop Long’s Statement “The safety and well-being of […]

Season of Creation Begins with World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation In 2015 Pope Francis asked Catholics to join with the Orthodox Church to celebrate the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. A number of other Christian churches had already joined them in it for a number of years. […]

Pacific Bishops meeting in Auckland in August 2017 declared: “As Bishops of the Pacific, the place of the sea in the lives of the peoples we serve was a central focus of our meeting. Our common ocean is teeming with life and goodness. For many of our peoples the sea is their treasured source of […]

Populorum Progressio turns fifty! Fifty years after Blessed Paul VI issued Populorum Progressio, Pope Francis has created a Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. As our introduction to Populorum Progressio explains, it was this encyclical that first introduced the language of integral human development into Catholic Social Teaching. Pope Francis’ action shows that this major […]

Cardinal John Ribat says that climate change is an urgent issue for the people of Papua New Guinea, and the whole of the Pacific. Cardinal Ribat drove his point home saying that the issue is a more urgent than discussing Amoris Laetitia. While there will be time to talk about Church teaching on family life, […]